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Not a bad question, though, because it gives me a chance to say something about the book I left out of the review: the authors ruled out all religious figures. I’m going to respond soon to your comment about Edith Wharton — whose writings on France I love — as soon as I check on what’s still in print …

You could make a great case that Holden Caulfield should have been on the list. The authors publish a list of near-misses at the end of “The 101 Most Influential People Who Never Lived,” and Holden is No. 7, right between Dirty Harry (No. 6) and Homer Simpson (No. 8).

The authors’ reasoning behind making the Marlboro Man No. 1 seems to be that the most people died or seriously damaged their health because of him (so he had the greatest literal, if not cultural, influence). It seems King Kong didn’t inspire people to put on gorilla suits and run up to the top of the Empire State building with kidnapped women the way the Marlobo Man influenced them to light up. But I agree that you could argue with that choice as much as with any others on the list ; part of the fun of the book is that the list is so arbitrary …